


Coincidence

by Anki_Shai



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Clara is a good friend, Gen, He remembers Donna, The Doctor is bored
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-14
Updated: 2020-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:40:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23146339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anki_Shai/pseuds/Anki_Shai
Summary: The doctor is bored so he decides to visit Clara, there he meets someone unexpected that brings back the memories of a former companion.
Relationships: Eleventh Doctor & Clara Oswin Oswald, Eleventh Doctor & Donna Noble
Kudos: 24





	Coincidence

**Author's Note:**

> So, lately I've been obsessing about the Doctor and Donna, I've been reading lots of fanfics about them and, while I haven't dare to write about them I just couldn't stop thinking about this. It has been a long time since I last wrote so I'm a little rusty. But I hope you enjoy this! Remember English is not my mother tongue, so I apologize for any funny grammar and spelling mistakes you may find.

**Coincidence**

Clara wrote the name of the author and the book on the board while explaining the objective of the next activity. She turned around only to find some of her students mildly distracted giggling behind their hands. She raised a brow ready to ask what was so funny when Amber, one of the top performers raised her hand, the girl’s clear eyes moving from the door to Clara.

“Yes, Amber?”

“Miss, there is a man at the door.” Clara furrowed her brow turning to the close door there she saw the goofy smile of the Doctor waving a hand at her. The young woman sighed hearing the giggles around the classroom, now she knew where all this distraction was coming from.

“Now, I was saying…” Clara trailed off when she realized another of her students raised his hand “Yes, John?”

“Aren’t you going to open the door, Miss? The poor guy has been trying to get your attention for quite some time.”

Clara sighed knowing it would be quite rude of her to leave the Doctor outside, and as much as she wanted to kill him right now for ignoring her warnings about showing up on her work place; she couldn’t be rude and leave him waiting in front of a bunch of impressionable teenagers. She was a teacher after all, she needed to be an example of manners and well behavior. Clara raised her hand and pointed to the Doctor, the alien pointed at himself nodding making some of the students chuckled. Clara nodded and called him in which the Doctor was very eager and fast to do so. The Doctor broke into a huge smile and entered the classroom almost falling on his face at his own clumsiness. This brought laughter and some of the girls were eyeing him with some interest, the man turned around smiling brightly waving his hands around.

“Good morning, Clara.” He greeted bowing to Clara before turning his attention to the class. “Good morning younglings that are not Clara.”

Some of the students blinked confusedly, other’s simply mumbled a ‘good morning’ back, Clara crossed her arms arching at brow at him. The Doctor’s smile faltered a little, but he still tried to impress the young woman in front of him by wiggling his eyebrows and waving his hands.

“Ta-da?”

“What are you doing here?” The Doctor opened and closed his mouth a couple of times, his eyes gleamed with realization.

“I came here to see your class.” He then chose a chair right beside a young red-head teen and sat down, his long legs uncomfortably bending around the chair. “Just ignored me, I’m one of the younglings eager for the knowledge you can impart to our minds.”

Clara snorted because she knew the truth. He was bored. He was utterly and madly bored or else he would have never dared to come over to bother her in the middle of a school day. What was even sadder was that, he was bored and Clara was the only one available or patient enough to put up with him.

The rest of the classroom was left speechless, though curious about this interaction. Most of them simply had never had a man such as this go into their classes and just…sit there looking at Clara with such eagerness on his face. The red-head eyed the Doctor warily at first, the Doctor smiled back and his eyes took into the young man’s face; for a moment something flashed into the Doctor’s mind and a memory of another ginger came into his mind at that moment. He shook his head, sadness taking over his brown eyes.

“Right, so…” Clara was about to continued but, seeing as most of the class was looking at the fidgeting man to her right she sighed defeated. “Very well. I will answer three questions about our guest and that will be it, before we go back to the class. Understood?”

Everyone nodded, and the girl from early was the first to raise her hand, Clara pointed at her and the girl blushed slightly before asking, “Is he your boyfriend, Miss Clara?””

The Doctor faltered on the chair, sputtering with his cheeks tingeing with red, Clara smirked at that shooting an amused glance at the Doctor before turning to Amber.

“No, he is not. He wishes, though.” Clara chuckled when the Doctor sputtered indignantly.

“I most certainly not!”

“Are you saying you wouldn’t like Miss Clara as your girlfriend? What kind of bloke are you?” The red-head said eyeing the man. “Are you gay?”

“What?! No, I’m not!”

“Oi! There’s nothing bad in being gay!” The red-head stated but the Doctor froze in place at the comment. He eyed the boy and the familiarity was made clear before his eyes, before the Doctor could say anything Clara spoke.

“He is just a friend, Amber, he’s just the Doctor.”

“He is a Doctor?” one of the kids asked confusedly.

“No, that’s how he goes by.” Clara explained though she knew this was rather confusing.

“Doctor? What kind of name is that?”

“John Smith.” The Doctor said slightly serious, “I’m Doctor John Smith.”

“You don’t look like a Doctor.” The red-head stated.

“Well, I’m not that kind of Doctor.” The Doctor retorted.

“Actually, you don’t look like any kind of Doctor I know.” The young man replied he crossed his arms narrowing his eyes at him. “Are you really a Doctor? Or, you use that us a pick-up line?”

The Doctor blushed lightly finding himself under the intense stare of a bunch of teens and the amused expression of Clara.

“I do not! I am a Doctor, and I am very smart to be any kind of Doctor.”

“Uh, Noble here is a genius; he could be a real Doctor. He is right, though. You don’t look like a Doctor.” Another teen interrupted also narrowing his eyes in suspicion.

The Doctor froze in place, his eyes went towards the young man sitting beside him and that’s when he realized where all the familiarity came. Noble. But, it couldn’t be, there must be a hundred people with the same last name, and the same ginger head. The kid stared back at the Doctor and for a moment nothing else was said, Clara furrowed her brows at the sudden quietness coming from the Doctor.

“Okay, we’re going back to the class and we can further discuss the title of my friend once we finish the assignment. Understood?” Clara said in a firm voice, this was enough for the class to turn their attention back to their studies.

The red-head stared at the Doctor a little longer, both of them were in the middle of a staring contest until the voice of Clara reached him out.

“John, why don’t you start reading the first paragraph?”

With some reluctance, John took his eyes off the Doctor, he leaned in towards his backpack putting the book out. The Doctor watched interested and his eyes fell upon a notebook hidden in the backpack, a blue notebook. A very familiar one at that.

Never before had he though the boredom he was feeling back in the TARDIS would bring him to such a coincidental encounter. Of course, he should be used to the TARIS doing things like this; bringing him to places where he may be needed or where he may find something to remember and continue forwards with his adventures. This seemed to be one of such times. John Noble. Now, that was something unexpected, and if he did have some doubts about the parentage of the kid sitting beside him before, he didn’t have them anymore.

John Noble was smart, of that the Doctor had no doubt. His answers to Clara were insightful, and the analysis of the texts or the significance of the pieces of literature they were studying were beyond someone his age. This made him smile lightly, this kid was smart and he was also outgoing and humble. Never, not even once he used his knowledge to humiliate or mock his classmates, if anything whenever there was some comment that would refute his own intervention he would accept it as another point of him that may be right. Even if it wasn’t. All through the class the Doctor as very attentive of John and it was then he saw the same features, the same factions and mannerism of Donna. The TARDIS certainly knew how to bring him back to memory land and make him feel how much he missed the former companion. He watched John Noble and he knew there was so much of her in him. And yet, there was something else in the kid, something more…alien.

“So, are you going to tell me why all of a sudden you got silent?” Clara asked sitting beside him once the class had gone to break. “I was expecting you to interrupt at every turn.”

The Doctor leaned forward his hand grabbing the notebook John had left behind.

“Doctor?” Clara asked concern.

“You have quite the interesting students, Clara.” The Doctor said eying the notebook warily. “This John Noble, he is quite smart, isn’t he?”

Clara narrowed his eyes in suspicion, “He is. Mike was not kidding when he said the boy is a genius, he was wanted by several prestigious and advanced schools all through the country and, if I were to believe the rumors, even outside the country.”

The Doctor was slightly impressed, and Clara could see some pride shinning in his dark eyes. “Why are you so interested in him?”

“Oh, Clara, my Clara…” the Doctor opened the notebook and Clara could see his eyes shining with tears. “It is not only him…I bet you know his parents, right?”

The Doctor asked examining with some interest the notebook on his hand. It was blue, TARDIS blue, with the same marks he had given to River at some point.

“I do.” This time Clara waited for the Doctor to speak, how she was getting curious about this reaction. Never before had Clara seen him react in such a way. “Though, his dad died six months ago, it was hard for him and Professor Noble.”

“Professor? Died?” The Doctor asked all at once.

Clara nodded and decided to elaborate, “His father Shaun died on a car accident. It was pretty hard for the both of them, I know John had some trouble concentrating in school and was getting in so much trouble. But Professor Noble was a great help in getting him back on track, she is a great mum, if you ask me.”

“I bet she is.” The Doctor mumbled smiling, “So, Professor Dona Noble?”

Clara looked surprised, “You know her?”

“Oh, I do. I’m quite surprise at you calling her professor, though.” The Doctor opened the notebook and his eyes went with surprised at the circular writing in there. Gallifreyan.

Clara furrowed her brows; she leaned forward watching the notebook and the familiar writing in there. Clara watched the man in front of her placing her hand on his just as she saw the flash of sadness on his eyes. “That notebook…those circles…it looks Gallifreyan.”

“It is.” The Doctor whispered.

“Doctor…what’s going on? Should I be worried? Is this why you came here?”

The Doctor shook his head, “No, I think this is just a coincidence.”

“What do you mean?”

The Doctor smiled wistfully turning to Clara, “Professor? Since when?”

Clara blinked before answering, “Uh, since I met her? She is a Professor in the LSE.”

The Doctor chuckled closing the notebook with a smile, “She is, eh?”

“How long has it been since you last see her?”

The Doctor sighed looking at Clara with big, puppy eyes. “It has been a very long time, 15 years to be exact.”

_John’s age_ Clara though and the sudden nostalgic stare in the Doctor’s spoke of untold tales. She knew there was more about the Doctor that she would ever know. And she knew, sometimes those tales include people he had to leave behind, people he loved dearly, that he still loved. Clara gripped the Doctor’s hand in reassurance.

“She was a former companion, right?”

The Doctor nodded looking at her gratefully for understanding; she knew how hard it was for him to speak about his other companions. She knew how hurt he was whenever he lost one of them, but the sudden nostalgia in him was different. There was something different about all of this.

“Well, the LSE isn’t far from here. You can visit if you want.” Then a dark shadow crossed the Doctor’s face.

“I can’t”

“Why?”

The Doctor sighed looking away from Clara, “She doesn’t remember me. At some point, when we were saving the world she…she came into contact with some of my regeneration energy, there was a metacrisis event that almost kill her.”

Clara nodded understanding showing on her eyes, the Doctor gave a sad smile, “I had to take the memories of our time together from her mind. She can’t remember me, she just can’t.”

And just like that, Clara saw a single tear rolled down his cheek. He was moving his hand on the pages of John’s notebook with sadness filling his features Clara sighed caressing the Doctor’s arm.

“He really is quite smart, and she is a great mum.” Clara mentioned. “She is always here when we have parent’s meetings or some kind of event in the school. When her husband died she made sure to be present for John and help him cope with everything.”

“That sounds a lot like her.” The Doctor mumbled smiling. “She was always this eager to help, had a great heart you know? Donna was brilliant.”

“She is a good person. Smart and very straightforward.” Clara commented. “Did you give her that notebook?”

“No, it wasn’t me.” The Doctor said eyeing the notebook, his lips curled up. “It was given by another person. A nice note and everything.”

“What did it say?”

“Keep growing, keep dreaming and keep running.” The Doctor said then with a chuckled he said. “Love, aunty River.”

There were several questions in the Doctor’s head, but right now he could only think about Donna and her son. Her brilliant son. He was glad everything turned out for the better for her and her family, he was glad Donna had realized her potential and was now a Professor. The Doctor could imagine her taking down every single one of the obstacles in her life and overcome her own insecurities to become the brilliant woman she always was. And what a great mother she was, John was an exemplary student with many friends and a noble heart. He was still wondering why River never said anything, but he could guess the blond-haired woman wouldn’t want him sad or running straight into a disaster if he were to find that Donna had a kid who could read Gallifreyan and whose brown eyes had a tinge of gold around them.

“You know?” Clara started saying. “She actually doesn’t know the Doctor with your face.”

The Doctor blinked looking over at Clara who was standing up, she put the notebook back on John’s bag and continued speaking, “She doesn’t even need to know you are the Doctor, and you don’t need to be too close to her. I have heard her classes are really popular and that she always has a great attendance in them.”

“What do you mean’” The Doctor inquired, already standing up a smile forming on his face.

“That you can’t stay here any longer.” Clara poked him on his chest. “You need to go because I can’t distract you while I’m in the middle of the class. And really, the LSE is no far away from here and she has a class right now.”

“Oh, Clara, brilliant Clara.” The Doctor hugged her tightly before running out of the classroom.

Clara shook her head amusedly, leaning closer to the windows where she could see him grabbing her bike, putting on the helmet and leaving out of the school. Sometimes he only needed a push to do what was right by him and not the universe.


End file.
